Take Personal Responsibility for your Travel

One of my realities is travel--for work and for pleasure.  Some of it absolutely necessary, but most is elective.  You almost certainly travel as well. 

Travel and transportation accounts for more than one quarter of world greenhouse gas emissions, and a good part of that is regular people like me driving in a car and flying in an airplane.

None were born with awareness that moving from place to place causes pollution.  Instead awareness is taught and learned, in structured and unstructured ways, sometimes gradually and sometimes suddenly.  For most of human history pollution awareness has been low, and some people still die unaware of the pollutive effect of human existence. 

These days it’s popular among the “aware” to wait for governments and industries to “do something.”  For example, the aviation industry has something called CORSIA that requires air carriers to limit their emissions.  The industry would have you believe that the end goal of CORSIA is for the industry to stop emitting greenhouse gases.  It’s not true, but it gives individuals a belief that flying will be green someday.  Then the people don’t worry about flying and don’t think about modifying their behaviors. 

On the ground, automobiles are increasingly fuel efficient and electric vehicles are increasingly available.  If you are lucky you can even save money making more fuel efficient choices.  Good on you!  Unfortunately, electricity production in most places still emits a lot of greenhouse gas.  We may be getting better but we still aren’t particularly good.   

I’ve written before and I will write again, governments and companies may work towards a cleaner environment when it suits them, but they will not, and they cannot, solve greenhouse gas pollution by themselves.  Individuals, by their choices, behaviors, signals, and votes, must take PERSONAL responsibility for their own emissions.

I’ll describe this in my own life, and I encourage you to do the same in your life.  The reality in my family is, I’m more interested in fighting climate change than my spouse and children.  We have invested in rooftop solar panels and drive hybrid cars.  We previously had fully electric vehicles but our advanced years and limited ability to adapt to new technologies forced a retreat on that front. 

We fly a lot, mostly by choice, and it’s unlikely I will successfully curtail that habit any time soon.  As such, I have negotiated with said spouse for us to purchase carbon credits against all the trips we will take going forward.  Going forward, as we budget financially, we will assume the cost of a flight is $100 more than the list price.  Then we will buy “like for like” carbon credits that store an equivalent amount of carbon emitted.

The goal here is not to math perfectly, but rather to acknowledge that my family and I make choices that cause greenhouse gas emissions.  Because my choices cause the emissions, I should do something about it.  I can change my behaviours, I can make investments, and I can influence others to make good decisions. 

I encourage you to do the same.